This book had all the elements of a story that would hook me: a centuries-old heroine with powers from Chinese mythology, a broodingly handsome French elf secret agent, danger and family drama … but the writing felt so juvenile, it was really hard to get into it. The main characters giggled and bantered like awkward teenagers, not immensely powerful immortal beings, and the tell-don’t-show storytelling constantly spent paragraphs on the background and relationships between characters before falling flat on a meaningless and stilted exchange. The entire first two chapters kept making me wonder if I’d missed a much better prequel, since it has to do so much explaining. Other magical characters seemed thrown in as token representation, and the villains never got any dimension at all. I did finish the book and it did eventually get better, but the characters and their conversation were never as cool as they should have been, given their powers and their supposed lifespans.
Tag: genre-ya
We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
Points to Lockhart for making you feel sorry for the narrator right off the bat. She’s a poor little rich girl, but her inner pain is vividly portrayed as physical: imaginary knives sink into her skin, objects cleave open her brain, and as blood and viscera pour over her clothes her mother tells her to stand straight and look calm… so she pulls herself together, and does as she is told. As the book goes on, it’s hard to distinguish reality from internal metaphor, but as the clues pile up you begin to understand the origins of her mental disturbance, as well as the ghosts that haunt her wealthy family. The writing style was full of sentence fragments and occasional mid-sentence line breaks; it could have been awkward, but settled quite nicely into the rhythm of stream-of-consciousness narration. Pretty bravely experimental for YA, all things considered.
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Excellent book, I want to push it at all misfit teenagers (and the adults they grow up to be). It’s a self-aware portal fantasy, done super well. 13 year old Elliot, upon discovering that he can enter a magical world, immediately tries to improve it: he smuggles in ballpoint pens to use instead of quills, calls out cross-species racism, and promotes diplomacy over war. His changing relationships with his warrior peers, elf Serene and awkward scion Luke, work as a beautiful heart to the story. (Fans of the relationship dynamic in Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series will enjoy this one too.) I couldn’t wait to finish this book and also never wanted it to end.
The Scapegracers, by H.A. Clarke
The narrator of The Scapegracers, a teenage lesbian witch named Sideways Pike, has never been cool; however, when a trinity of confident, popular girls hires her to perform a showy spell for their Halloween party, she finds in them both a coven for her magic and an unexpected gift of friendship. The other girls are the opposite of insecure: they are brimming with righteousness and rage, ready to rain down curses on anyone who mistreats them or makes them feel lesser (mostly self-centered teenage boys). There are some threats from scary witchfinders and some weird gatekeeping from the occult establishment going on in the background, but mostly this book is a ferocious celebration of loyalty and magic. I love the defiant rejection of the “mean girls clique” trope, and also the diverse cast. First in a series.
Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros
Yet another “teenagers battle to the death at school” story, except this time they’re battling for the chance to bond with dragons. Nerdy teen Violet always wanted to be a scribe (read: lawyer/historian), but her mother commands her to go to dragonrider school where the chance of death is not only possible but statistically likely; although much is made of her weak frame, Violet can apparently hit whatever she wants to with a thrown dagger and also manages to training-montage her way to awesomeness while still retaining vast mental tomes of history and battle tactics. She also, of course, finds herself in a love corner (it’s not a triangle if it’s not a three-way!) with two hot guys, one of whom is named Xaden. (It’s an exotic analogue of Jayden, Braden, or Kaden.) No prizes for guessing whether or not she bonds one of the coveted dragons. Although I rolled my eyes hard through much of this novel, it was also undeniably a fun ride, full of teen drama, romance, action, and snappy comebacks. Extremely formulaic, but the formula works.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, by Sonora Reyes
I loved this book so much. Yamilet Flores follows her brother Cesar to a very rich, very white Catholic school, where she already stands out for being Mexican-American and would rather not also stand out for being queer. (Also her mom would likely kick her out if she knew.) It gets very hard to keep pretending to be straight, however, when her new friend Bo is the prettiest, smartest, friendliest, and bravest girl she’s ever met. Yami deals with very typical teen drama, from mean girls at school to problems caused by race, class, and sexuality, along with complicated family dynamics and the burden of juggling secrets. I loved how the adults in the book were each doing what they thought best for the kids, and how the kids find their way through to their own truths by the end. Great cast of well-formed characters; great commentary on existing social structures.
Heartstopper, by Alice Osman
Simple, sweet boy’s school romance. Charlie Spring was outed last year and is now openly gay, despite occasional bullying and shunning; his new seat partner Nick Nelson is a pure-hearted, friendly rugby player who wouldn’t understand subtext even if it was patiently pointed out to him. Meet-cute scenes ensue. Nothing complicated about this graphic novel, which is adorable from start to finish; the characters are weirdly (but refreshingly!) open and communicative with one another, which tends to stave off angst and drama.
Ledge, by Stacey McEwan
The people of the Ledge eke out a miserable existence in a barren, icy land, their population ritually reduced through sacrifices to the winged Glacians. Grim, ax-wielding Dawsyn (I could not read her name without rolling my eyes, sorry), last of her household, is finally snatched up and learns the tragic background of of her existence. With the help of an enigmatic handsome (of course) half-Glacian named Ryon (eyeroll again), she escapes only to discover that the truth is even more grim than she had imagined. The book started out sharp and simple but then both plot and writing got muddled as Dawsyn kept uncovering more and more layers to her country’s past. It seemed like things were being pulled together at the end, but then a completely unnecessary cliffhanger plot twist threw everything into a jumble again. Unlikely to pick up the next book in the series.
Fence: Striking Distance, by Sarah Rees Brennan
This reads like a fanfiction of a sports anime, which I guess it kind of is since it’s a novelization of the comic series originally by C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad. (I haven’t read the original material either but from what I know of Pacat, I’m sure it’s quite faithful to the original.) The fencing is present but somewhat disappointingly muted; instead, the focus is on the characters and their stumbling, often-hilarious journey towards romance. Predictable sweetness, with occasional biting social commentary.
Nyxia, by Scott Reintgen
This is basically the Hunger Games, but in space. A bunch of desperate teenagers are recruited by an unscrupulous corporation to mine nyxia, a magical substance on an alien planet whose properties stretch the limits of credulity; during the space journey over, they are subjected to deadly competition with one another for the limited number of spaces available. I almost put this down quite a few times because the corporate overlords were so evil, the teens so tortured, and the magical nyxia so nonsensical that I couldn’t keep from rolling my eyes at everything. Still, the writing and characterization were just good enough that I made it to the end, where of course even more plot twists left plenty of issues for the sequel.